Gretchen Suzane

My little Gretchie bear is getting so big!! She's almost 2 years old and I can't believe it. She's so smart and coordinated and talented and I love my little miracle baby. Here are some of the things she's doing:

She's climbing:
    This little monster is going to be a gymnast, I swear. She can climb, run, jump, do amazing things. On the playground, it's borderline scary. I have to watch this kid so carefully or else she could do something dangerous, or at least more dangerous than the things she already attempts. Like her other favorite new thing, climbing out of her crib. Which she hasn't perfected, so it's a terrifying job of putting her to bed and listening for any thuds. It's just about time for a big girl bed, but man I don't want to start that yet either.

She's talking:
     I swear she talks better than Annabelle. She can say so many things and she gets better everyday. Her newest thing is asking to go to the potty. She likes to try to use the potty 4 times an hour, I promise. I don't like to sit with her and stop whatever we're doing every 15 minutes but I don't want to stifle this new passion for the potty. So we sit. All the time. And it's really hard to resist that sweet little voice saying, "Mama, I wanna use the potty!". She also knows everyone's name in our family. Daddy, Mom, Dom, Sissy and she calls herself baby. Grandpa is Pa-pow and she talks about him ALL THE TIME. So sweet to hear our names nowadays.

She's hilarious:
     She likes to be everyone's center of attention. If I'm holding her and Nick talks to me and I turn to him, she will literally pull my face back until it's facing her. She will repeat your name over and over again until you are facing her again.

She's huge:
     My sister went to give me an old pair of Addie's shoes and they wouldn't fit. When we compared their feet, Gretchen's are actually bigger than Addie's. Not yet 2 and she's wearing a size 7. Big girl. Also wearing all 3T clothes. I'm interested to see her stats when we go to her 2 year appointment...which I guess I should make.

Anyway, she's an adorable, fun, playful, gorgeous little monster and I wouldn't trade her for the world.

Routines

It's taking us awhile but I think we're finally getting into our routines. All of us. Life is a little crazy around this house most of the time but in a good way.

Dominick is in his new school and doing very well. It will be one month tomorrow. I'm so happy for him and love that he's learning so many things every day. I don't even mind doing homework with him because it means he's learning. He has friends and it seems like he's adjusting extremely well. My big boy is SO big!!

Annabelle has been in her school for about a month and a half. She's doing great too. When I drop her off now, she gives me a hug, then a kiss, then another kiss, then she waves goodbye and she's off. Breaks my heart a little but she's happy and that's all that matters. Her speech has improved but definitely still has room to improve so we're keeping an eye on it. We'll probably go to a place and get another evaluation done but I'm happy for her and happy that I'm understanding more every day.

Gretchen is ONE now!?! Holy cow this past year has flown. She's doing so many things. She can take about 3-4 steps at a time and I'm so proud of that big girl too! She's babbling all the time and for the most part a happy baby. She is definitely a mama's girl. More so than any of the other kids. If she can see me, and I'm not holding her, she's screaming for me. If she can't see me, she's fine. But I better not be in the same room. She goes to a sitter 1-2 days a week and to my mom's maybe one day a week and the rest of the time she's home with me. We're learning how to get things accomplished and still have fun at home. It's a work in progress.

Nick is pretty settled in at his new job. I think he's doing well. He's putting in a lot of time and effort so I hope he's doing well! He's been pretty stressed trying to make sure everything is perfect but I think he's settling in.

I am done with orientation!! I am officially an RN on my own! Yay!!! I go to work tonight and get to do everything on my own and I'm thrilled! I love what I do and I especially love getting to do it without a shadow, no offense to my preceptors!!

Nick's mom is helping us in our routine. When I work at night, I don't get home until 8 am the next day. Nick leaves for work at 6:20 so we have an hour and forty minute gap with no child care. She's been coming over in the morning and helping out. It's been amazing. I hope she doesn't get too tired of it!! Because we need her and love her and appreciate it a TON.

All in all, we are getting there. Just in time for fall. My second favorite time of year (after March madness, of course!).

Oh fall. That's another post all by itself.

But we're getting there. On another note, now that we're getting into a routine, I only have 4 more months on my 30 x 30...better get to work! :)

Happy Wednesday!!

Antibiotics...

It's never a dull moment at our house!! All three kids are taking amoxicillin now. We went to the pediatrician on Wednesday because Gretch has been pulling at her ears and Dom said his throat hurt. Dom had a throat culture done and tested positive for strept. Then Gretchen had her ears looked at and she has redness in one and lots of fluid in the other. So they both got started on antibiotics. Then they swabbed Annabelle just to be sure. She was negative. Then I got a lovely phone call yesterday saying that the swab for Annabelle that they sent off to the lab came back positive. So she got started on antibiotics too.

So two cases of strept and one double ear infection. Right on.

At least I can start them all on meds at the same time and be pretty confident that as soon as one is over it, they won't give it to another. That's what happened with the dreaded pink eye a few months back. And at Schnucks amoxicillin is free. So that's nice too...

Oh well. Here we go. Now let's just pray that none of them end up allergic to amoxicillin!

Early walker??

I think gretchie is going to walk soon!! She's already pulling herself up and trying to walk around in her crib, etc. I think she'll definitely be walking by her first birthday and maybe even sooner!! Yikes!!

And let me tell you, this kid is cute!! What a cutie! ;-)

Big talker!!

Gretchen is talking up a storm!!! It's amazing really. Her favorite things to "say" are da da da, ba ba ba and ga ga ga. I'm still trying to get her to say mama but so far no dice! What a big girl! Annabelle better hurry up or Gretchen will be talking before her!

And speaking of Annabelle, we were told at her 2 year appointment to call Missouri First Steps program to get her evaluated for speech therapy. I've finally called and made that appointment and they will be coming on Friday! She's doing better with speech but still behind so I'm really looking forward to that appointment and seeing what they say. I'll keep you posted!!

Gretchen!

CAN CRAWL!!!

She's not very good at it yet, but she can do it! She only does it for a few scoots but she does it and I'm so proud and happy that I got to be there for it! Finally! Something I got to see!

My baby girl is growing up!!! She did it on Easter Sunday morning (3/31/13 - for the baby book) trying to steal Easter eggs from the older kids. ;-) Good girl!

5 months old!

Time keeps on flying!

Gretchie bear, Gretch the Stretch, Gretchalina, whatever you wanna call her, she's 5 months old today!! She's so big! And she's so happy!!

We've made some changes at our house, and all for the better I think. Annabelle has moved into Dominick's room with him and while we're still adjusting to that, I think that's going to be great. It's hard getting them to go down at night since they can distract each other, but it's better because Dom gets scared being downstairs alone. Now they are both down there and he loves having her in there. She loves being in there. They are doing well with sharing toys and she's talking more I think now that they talk each other to sleep (which we're going to have to work on....).

Now that Gretchen has her own room, she's been sleeping through the night again (until the last two night, but I think that's because her cough came back), so that's good. Also, we switched her formula to the GentleEase and now she doesn't spit up anymore (or barely spits up anymore), so YAY all around for those things!

She's not doing too many more things than 4 months. She's been rolling over since 4 months so that's not new, although I may not have blogged about it. She's been doing rice cereal by spoon and doing pretty well with that. One of these days I'm going to make some baby food and get her started on some veggies, but I just haven't had the time and I'm not buying her baby food. I'll probably do that tomorrow night after my class. Start her off with some peas or carrots. Yum!

She likes to chew on things and she's begun to suck on her thumb. Annabelle and Dom both did that for about a week so we'll see if actually becomes a thumb sucker or if this is a temporary thing as well.

She's a big girl. She's been in 3-6 month clothes for awhile now and seems to get longer and longer every day. She's a great baby. I took her to her first basketball game over the weekend with Dominick and my mom and she did great. Only cried one time and that was because she was hungry. And once I started feeding her she was perfect again. And it was LOUD. I was sure she'd get upset but she never did.

Our little surprise miracle baby is just perfect! Happy 5 months to you Gretchie bear!!

My Immediate Family Christmas

We always do our immediate family Christmas the Saturday or Sunday before Christmas just because the holidays get so crazy busy. This year, my sister and I took my mom to see Wicked at the Fabulous Fox on Saturday so we did Family Christmas on Sunday.

It was a great time. We went over to my parent's around 3 pm. We did dinner first because I knew my kids wouldn't sit through dinner if we did presents first. We had a great meal and then did presents. All of these kids are so loved and spoiled that it's ridiculous. :)

Dominick got a ton of stuff on his Christmas list, including: new Christmas PJ's, a new "piggy bank" which is a big green dinosaur, a big boy green cup, a new puzzle, Ice Age: Continental Drift, and a ton of the Melissa&Doug brand wooden food. What a lucky boy.

Annabelle got a new baby doll, a baby stroller, Melissa&Doug wooden food, new Christmas PJ's, and something else I think, but can't remember...

Gretchen got new Christmas PJ's and a TON of clothes. Just what I wanted her to get!

The food was great, the kids had a blast, everything was perfect!

We gave some presents and got some presents but of course, Christmas is now all about the kids.

Here are some pictures of our day:

 Dad, Dom and Celia all opening a few presents

 Addie opening one of the presents from us, a bag full of baby accessories

 Annabelle looking at her new Christmas PJ's (which she's wearing today!)

 Celia opening her Lego Camper from Grandpa and Grandpa

 Celia opening her play-doh present that Dom picked out

 Gretch just taking it all in

 Angela opening her gift from us, kitchen stuff! 

 Andrew opening a present from Mom and Dad, a signed copy of Tony La Russa's book

 Another pic

 Grandma opening the Cookie Jar the kids made then

 Grandpa opening the calendar of the kids that Angela makes him and Mom every year

Annabelle playing with her new stroller and new baby that she named "LaLa"

It was a great FIRST Christmas. One of many that we got the pleasure of going to this year. What a lucky family we have. :)

Gretchen Updates

Gretchen is just getting to be SO big!! Seriously I can't believe how big she is. She seems to be doing so much. I'm not sure if it's because for the last year I've basically been gone, with school and work and everything that I haven't noticed a lot of the changes with the other kids and now that I'm home and she's changing the fastest that I'm noticing everything or what the deal is but she's getting so big so quick.

Did that make sense??

Anyway, Gretchen is now almost 15 lbs according to our scale at home with me weighing myself with her and then without her. She rolled over for the first time from her back to her belly on Saturday, December 29th when she was about 3 1/2 months old. This is the quickest of any of my babies to do this. She now coo's all the time too. We joke around that she talks more than Annabelle (who still only says about 10 words, and yes I'm still very worried about this). 

She is so alert all the time. She really focuses on things now. She can track you all around the room. Her whole face lights up when she sees or hears someone she knows. If Nick has been gone to work all day and he comes into the room, she just smiles and looks for him. She starting laughing yesterday, December 30th for the first time.

I hate that I'm going back to school in just a week because I know I'm going to be missing so much more!

But that's what's been going on with Gretchen!

What a BIG girl!! :)

Too long

It's been way too long, but again, there's no way to catch up tonight. I'll try tomorrow, but that will be tough since I'll be home with all three kiddos tomorrow.

So instead I'll just mention the most important thing right now, Gretchen rolled over for the first time yesterday!! Yay!! :) She's getting to be SO big!

I'll try to post within the next few days to catch up on everything.

Christmas
Cousins Holiday Party
Gretchen's Newest things
Dom's school Christmas show
My work
My school
My hospital stays, etc
Addie's Scare on Christmas

So much to discuss! I'll try tomorrow, I promise!!

Catch up?

There's no way to fully catch up since my last post. Too much has happened. But I'll glaze over the basics.

First, I went back to the hospital. I got home from the hospital on that Monday. Had a rough Tuesday, an ok Wednesday, a great Thanksgiving, a rough Friday, a bad Saturday and was back in the hospital on Sunday at 2 am. Again, I did a million tests, and again I left with no real answers. The only thing that was interesting is that a spinal tap made me feel better. I was at the hospital from Sunday, very early AM until Tuesday at 6:30 in the evening. It was another long stay. And the worst part was I missed Gretchen's baptism!!! :( And I've still only seen 3 pictures. Nick's sister texted me 3 pictures, which were great, but those are the only pictures I've seen.

Second, Thanksgiving was amazing. We went to my Dad's side in the morning and my Mom's side in the evening. We were going to celebrate with Nick's family in conjunction with Gretchen's baptism, but I missed that. I'm sure it was amazing though as well. And that was the one day I felt good enough to eat!

Third, Gretchen is baptized! Yay Gretch! A big girl! And Dominick completely ripped up her baptismal certificate because he's very into ripping these days. So I have to get her a new one, but that's ok.

Fourth, I went back to work and I love it! I missed it so much!!!

Fifth, Annabelle and Gretchen are at a new sitter's. The old sitter, Stella, didn't have an open spot for Gretchen and it seemed crazy to send the girls to two separate places. So both girls are going to Karen's. And they love it! And I love that Karen charges by the day and not the week. So I stay home with the girls on the days I'm not working. So it's cheaper (although a little more stressful), but totally worth it. I think it's harder work than my work but I love spending time with my girls!

I think that's about it!

I'll try to be better on here, but it's tough. I'm getting ready for bed at 8 with the kids and exhausted by 9:30. But I'll try to get on here more!

Halloween

What a disaster! Holy cow, I was completely unprepared for what this Halloween was going to be like. We decided to do the trunk or treat at Dominick's school. The trunk or treat was from 6-8 and we were instructed to decorate our trunk and bring at least 300 pieces of candy. Of good candy.

So we got signed up. My mom and I spent two hours making Handy Manny tools out of cardboard for the car decorations. Then we went shopping (another story, but I got AMAZING boots!). Then I got the kids costumes together.

I was excited. This was the first year Annabelle would really understand and the first year that Dominick was REALLY excited.

It started off great! Here are a few pictures of the car and Dom and I waiting for Nick and Grandma to get there with Annabelle.

It started off great. But there were so many people there. We brought almost 500 pieces of candy. Again, GOOD candy. We spent like $40 something on just candy.

Then I got frustrated. I knew it was a community event, but I was thinking it would be more of just Dom's school and not every single person in the area. We ran out of candy in the first 45 minutes. And I don't mind giving kids candy. If it were all kids, in costumes, I would have been happy and even gone out to get more candy. But it wasn't. There were MANY "kids" over 18 there. A lot of people brought 2 bags for candy. One for them and one for their "kid in the car". Why was their kid in the car??? There was a couple who were walking around with their infant child, who wasn't dressed up, and they were asking for candy. Really?? Really???? Wait until the next day and buy a whole bag for 50% off.

I was mainly frustrated because I spent all my time and effort and a decent amount of money to make sure that Halloween was great. And instead of getting to enjoy it with my kids and family, I was trying to worm my way through a throng of about 500+ people, make sure I didn't lose my kids, and try and have them enjoy walking to the 25 cars that were there.

It was annoying.

After 6:45, we left. I wasn't going to try and get more candy while my kids waited in the car. So we left and went back to our house and then took the kids to the few houses that were giving out candy in our neighborhood.

Luckily a few houses were left in our neighborhood and Dom and Anna had fun.

I was so frustrated and tired at the end of the night that when we were all tucked in, I realized I didn't take hardly any pictures. I took no pictures of Annabelle in her full costume. I took literally NO pictures of Gretchen on her first Halloween. Bad Mommy...

Here's a picture back at the house of Annabelle eating some candy.

Doesn't she just look like trouble??

I'm going to have to get the kids dressed up again and just take a picture! oh well.

I know next year we'll just stay in our neighborhood. I'd rather do that. I would be less frustrated and I think the kids would have more fun.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Pumpkin Patch

We made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch this past weekend and it was stressful! :) but fun and totally worth it.  Luckily my mom met us there and that was a major life saver. It's hard when you are outnumbered by kids! Especially when one has to be held and another one doesn't talk but likes to run away!

But we made it. And Dom and Anna had a blast (Nick calls Annabelle Anna and I'm trying to go with it so she doesn't get so confused with having a million different names!).

We got there and it was PACKED. I swear, everyone was at this pumpkin patch on Sunday around 2. But there was a lot to do and Dom jumped right in. There was a small maze for kids with a bridge, a pole to slide down, a tire to crawl through and more. There were a few slides to go down. There were some hay mazes to crawl through (that were completely pitch black and I can't believe Dom liked them). There were also pony rides and swings and of course, pumpkins!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the pumpkin patch!

Happy Halloween!

Pictures!

My grandpa holding Gretchen and talking to Annabelle

My little dare devil. She climbed up onto the coffee table 

at my parents house and was smirking as if daring us to tell her to get down...

Gretchen napping in the pack n play while I cooked dinner one night. 

It amazed me how close in size she and the doll were!

HAHA, I HAD to post this picture!

Cecilia is SO skinny and tall. Her pants can't even stay up. When this happened

I asked if she needed help. She said, "no". She was more concerned with playing 

than worrying about her pants! 

Annabelle, Dominick and Cecilia

Cheering on the Cardinals!

Go Cardinals!!!

Big girl Gretchen!!

My Grammie, Gretchen and me. 

Gretchen at 1 month

Dommie and Addie cheering on the Cardinals. 

I haven't hardly taken any pictures, but this is what I have. Hopefully I can add more to it soon!

My Grammie

My grandma is sick. You wouldn't know it if you just looked at her. Physically she's perfect. She's living on her own and doing everything for herself. The scary part is that she has dementia. I don't talk to her as often as I should, but every time I do talk to her I realize how bad it's getting.

I went to visit her last Wednesday with my mom and Gretchen. We wanted Grandma to get to meet her. Here's the conversation we had the first few minutes I was there:

me: "Hi Grandma! How are you?"
Grandma: "Hi. Is this the baby? What's her name?"
me: "Yup. This is Gretchen."
G: "Oh hi Gretchen!"
silence for a few seconds
G: "So what's his name? Is it a boy?"
me: "No, it's a girl. Her name is Gretchen."
G: "Oh I thought it was a girl, but then you just said he."
I got the baby out and gave the baby to Grandma.
G: "How old is she?"
me: "She's 1 month old."
G: "Oh she's tiny."
me: "Yeah, she's pretty small for our family."
G: "Yeah, she's small. How old is she?"
me: "She's 1 month old."
G: "One month? Oh wow, she's tiny"

It went on like that for every conversation we had. We were there for 2 hours and we probably had 30 minutes worth of conversation. It makes me sad. Sad because I know that must be frustrating for Grandma to think that no one tells her things or that she can't remember anything. Frustrating for the family when Grandma can't remember things. It's sad because she'll never really know these great grandchildren.

The only thing to really do is keep visiting, keep calling and make sure she knows we love her. So I'll keep doing it. And keep taking pictures. Even if the kids don't remember Great Grammie, I want to be able to show them pictures when they are older and tell them stories about her.

I have a great picture of me, Grammie and Gretchen, but of course it's on the camera and not on the computer. I'll upload it soon.

I'm going to try and remember to bring my camera more places and take more pictures. I've been lazy recently.

Anyway, we love you Grammie and I'm so happy you got to meet Gretchen the other day! We'll come back soon and visit.

1 month old

I need to bring my camera downstairs and update all my pictures, but I wanted to post Gretchen's 1 month stats.

She turned one month old on Thursday and we had her appointment with the pediatrician. She's doing great! She's up to 9 lbs. 4 oz. and 21" long. So she's back on track with her weight and doing fabulous. She got 1 shot and only cried for a few minutes.

She's tracking with her eyes and starting to hold her head up. She's already getting to be so big!

She just got out of newborn clothes. Literally yesterday. As of Thursday she was wearing newborn and then yesterday she was just too long. Now I'm sure that has more to do with the brand and the actual onesie I put her in, than the idea that she grew overnight, but still. I'm moving her to 0-3 month clothes. It's crazy. Dominick and Annabelle NEVER were able to fit in newborn clothes and Gretchen wore then for a full month!

One thing that the doctor said at the visit was that Gretchen was going to start giving me longer stretches at night on sleep. She said within the next month I should start getting 4 and 5 hour stretches as well as more awake time during the day. Well the last two nights have been AmAzInG. Last night she ate at 10, and then slept until 3 and then again until 6:30. It was great. GREAT I tell you!

I can't believe she's getting so big!! I'll update with pictures soon!

The night before...

So tomorrow is when my scheduled c-section was supposed to be. it's kind of crazy to think about what I would have been doing.

I would have been double checking my hospital bag to make sure I have everything. I would have been charging my camera. I would have been making sure we had arrangements for people to pick up Dom and Annabelle from school and daycare. I would have been enjoying one last meal (complete with ice cream) before having to stop eating and drinking before the surgery. I would have been soaking up the last few minutes of being a family of 4 before turning into a family of 5.

Instead, I'm chasing around an almost 4 year old and 1 1/2 year old. I'm cleaning up after making dinner. I'm folding laundry. I'm watching the baseball game and getting ready to watch the debate.

But best of all, I'm looking at a beautiful 3 week old sleeping in her pack n play.

Today isn't what I was planning on it to be. But sometimes messed up plans turn out to be amazing.

I'm so happy that Gretchen is already here and so happy to be our family of 5.

What an amazing night.

Oh and GO BIRDS! :)

Hospital Pictures!

I'm such a sucker. I always buy the hospital pictures. Even when Dom was born and Bella Baby wasn't doing the pictures yet and the pictures were awful! I bought them all... But I got the CD in the mail yesterday with Gretchen's pictures so I thought I'd post a few of my favorites!

Enjoy!

Isn't my baby beautiful???

Happy 3 weeks Gretchen!!